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The Snake
Duc Beauregard (more commonly known as "The Snake") is an antagonist in the Stronghold series, and one of AI opponents in Stronghold Crusader. Biography In the original Stronghold, The Snake is one of the four lords who have split the land between themselves. Whilst being very conniving and sly, he also bullies The Rat along with The Pig. He is the one who tricked players father into a trap that cost him his life, although he was not the one who actually killed him. The Snake is the second lord to be defeated in the Military Campaign. Stronghold The Snake was once made governor to some of the richest provinces in the homeland where he made an extremely fruitful but less than honourable living from under declaring the taxes collected from his people. The king was eventually made aware of this and decided to have him exiled to Britain in order to keep him at arms length whilst still making use of his talents. Execution was, unfortunately, out of the question as killing such a popular leader with his own hand could well have sparked a revolution. During one of his first military encounters in Britain he went up against your father, losing an eye to him in a skirmish. On that day the Snake swore he would not rest until the decapitated heads of your entire family were lined-up on spikes outside of his keep. Already back to his old tricks, the Snake has his greasy hands in the Rats back pocket, draining his coffers with help from the corrupt tax officials initially sent over to give him aid. Stronghold Crusader The Snake has some ability to run his estate, but little stomach for a full on fight. He likes the hired help to do most of his dirty work for him. Appeareance Duc Beauregard is a regal looking gent who is relatively tall and of slight build. He is the most elegant of your opponents as well as the best dressed. His chiselled face is accentuated by a head of slicked back black hair, which thins to a point at the front. Only the grey flecks above his ears and the few grey hairs in his short, well-groomed black beard betray his age. As well as wearing tight, figure-hugging clothes, which highlight his slim physique, he also decorates himself with a smattering of lightweight jewellery. Personality Although The Snake is an exceptionally slippery fellow who constantly has his eye open for the next easy profit to be made, this is well hidden behind a confidently worn mask of kindness. He talks slowly and rhythmically as if being careful not to let his true intentions slip and his voice has a raspy edge that makes him emphasize his “S’s”. Always trying to get one-over on whomever he meets, he makes sure to massage the other person’s ego whilst smiling confidently with only one side of his mouth when discussions are going well. If he feels that a deal is about to be struck, he runs his thumb over the pads of his fingers as well as occasionally wetting his lips with rapid flicks of his tongue. If threatened or antagonised, his voice takes on a more condescending tone and he raises the eyebrow above his good eye as if to accent his disgust. Overall, The Snake is a master of the doublecross and will use every dirty trick in the book to stab friends and enemies alike in the back. Strategies and Castles Economy The Snake runs a modest economy focused on military. He builds 2 quarries along with woodcutters and supplies his peasants with numerous apple orchards. He has however, many fletchers and poleturners employed, and he also buys in spears and archers in large batches. He also provides a small variety of food by constantly buying in cheese. He has average taxes, but does not affect popularity or production in any way. Offense The Snake is a considerably aggressive enemy. He uses only cheap troops, which means almost infinite attacks, as one group may quickly follow the other. He recruits a bunch of slaves, in much smaller numbers than the Caliph does, backed up with slingers and throws them targetting enemy farms and quarries. Slingers are also able to provide a cheap missile cover, as they can effectively kill oxen and workers with one hit. He may also supply these groups with a lonely catapult to provide assistance. Whilst like the Rat, spearmen and archers are present in his main siege attacks, his attacks are much more effective. This is because the Snake brings much fewer spearmen and many more archers than the Rat. These archers are usually deployed in loose formation near the enemies walls, which means it sometimes can take a surprisingly long time for his besieged enemies to kill them all with the tower mounted archers. Some of the archers deployed by the Snake are also Arab bowmen, which are slightly stronger in attack and armour than European archers. Sometimes some of these archers get left behind and don't get within range of his enemies walls during a siege, and these often target his enemies' workers and can be, like the rest of his archers, a nuisance. As well as archers and spearmen, the Snake also sends laddermen and a few catapults on his sieges. The catapults can cause some damage for his besiged enemies as they are often too preoccupied dealing with his numerous archers to be able to immediately destroy his catapults. The laddermen, along with his spearmen can usually be easily killed relatively quickly. Defense The Snake has a serpentine-shaped castle, bordered by a combination of narrow walls and moat. Perimeter turrets are placed at regular intervals, which are filled with archers. Gatehouses also have a small guard of archers and starting slingers. The keep is also heavily defended with units since, attack forces are also assembled there. The Snake has an unnoticeable strike force of archers and spearmen for dangerous situations. He also recruits three groups of archers to patrol his buildings. How to deal with Offense The Snake's attacks are not usually that dangerous, however if he is allowed to build up his troops past 300 in total, they can be. A crossbowman can kill a soldier sent by the Snake in one shot. This makes them useful, however they need to be supported by quicker firing archers due to the speed of the Snake's attacks. The quick firing slingers are also useful to kill off any spearmen and laddermen that should scale your walls. A moat can also slow down the attackers. The archers and Arab bowmen that the Snake sends on attacks often prove a nuisance, and due to their deployment in large numbers and in loose formation, they can take a while to kill using the conventional tower mounted missile units, especially if some hide behind rocks and cliffs that happen to be in the area or, as often happens with the Snake, some remain out of range of archers and crossbowmen on towers. Therefore, a few knights, macemen or horse archers are useful to sally out and kill these archers and stop workers on outlying farms and quarries from being shot at. These units can also destroy the catapults that the Snake usually sends in his sieges. Defense The Snake's towers are small, but are usually packed to full capacity with archers. Trying to kill the lord with mass assassins probably won't work because of this. Instead it is better destroying his towers from afar with catapults or trebuchets. A group of fire ballistae can be used to fire upon the archers and other units on his keep, which can be killed quickly. Finally, as the Snake usually keeps trying to replenish his archers and other troops until the bitter end, his fortress will need to be set on fire to prevent this happening. Once the fire stops, a few assassins can then be used to kill the lord. Quotes *As player's enemy: **Attacking player: Ahhh ... yes, it's time to die. **Failed attack : Grrhh... you servently try my patience, I will remove you yet! **Destroying a structure : It is over my friend, let's face it you lost! **Attacked by player: 'Ahhh... Time to leave...' **Panicking: Ohh ... I think I might just, ahh... **When his killed by player: Oh spare me, I wanted only to be your ally, really I did! Navigation ru:Змея Category:Characters